Recently, actor Patrick Dempsey sold a new situation-comedy idea about hairdressing to ABC, according to numerous online and print reports.

The proposed TV show—created by Dempsey and his well-known wife Jillian, and tentatively titled Coif—is described as a Cheers or Friends that takes place in a Los Angeles beauty school. Currently, a pilot plot is in the works.

I’m really rooting for this sitcom to make it. The salon industry and beauty schools could use some good PR, and it certainly will help open-to-the-public beauty stores. And frankly, on a personal level, I’m tired of the salon-reality show genre.

See you next Wednesday,
Marc

Is your beauty store offering customers solutions to offensive body odor? Last Thursday, Burlingame, California-based French Transit, the parent company of natural Crystal Deodorant products, released a fascinating survey of 1,000 men and women that punctuates the question with an exclamation point.

Recently conducted by Sentient Decision Science—an independent market research and consulting firm—and commissioned by Crystal Deodorant, the survey revealed the extreme sacrifices those 18 years and older will make to avoid B.O.:

• Forty-six percent said they would shave an average of 10 years off their lives to banish chronic body odor for life.
• Thirty-two percent reported that they were willing to give up a bonus or salary raise to move away from a smelly cubicle-mate for a year. Thirteen percent commented that they would quit their jobs.
• On a first date, 85% noted that they would tolerate bad breath over bad body odor.
• Eighty-three percent shared that if their favorite celebrity had bad body odor, they would choose not to go out on a date with him or her.

In addition, Americans would opt to gain an average of 17 pounds to avoid a lifetime of body odor, according to the survey.

“Clearly, we expected to find an aversion to body odor,” points out Larry Friedberg, Crystal vice president of marketing. “What surprised us was that so many people would take such extreme measures to avoid their own and others’ offensive smells. There’s an overemphasis in our society on physical appearance. However, this survey clearly demonstrates that how we and others smell is underemphasized.”

The survey’s results can be found here. Its margin of error is ±3.1% with a 95% level of confidence.

By the way, Crystal offers its unscented deodorants through beauty salons and department stores worldwide under the Le Crystal Naturel name. Check this out.

See you next Wednesday,
Marc

One of the most fascinating companies I routinely deal with is Upper Canada Soap and Candle Co., a one-stop beauty-store supplier of more than 2,000 innovative products.

We have a superb interview with company president and owner Stephen Flatt (by Marcia Layton Turner and spearheaded by senior editor Shelley Moench-Kelly) in our December issue, which starts mailing from our printer on Nov. 11.

Upper Canada Soap is celebrating its 40th anniversary; a long way from its humble beginnings launching a single bar of handmade soap. Today, the company’s Danielle line alone offers more than 500 products. New in it this year: a monogrammed collection of lunch totes and purse hangers as well as Ultra-Vue Metal mirror additions.

Lines introduced just this year include All About Hands, All About Feet, Body Truffles and Aroma Cocktails. (Watch for Fruit Frappe next year.)

Not too long ago, Upper Canada also expanded its offering as the exclusive distributor of Bath Bakery products in the United States and as the distributor of Nougat of London bath care.

Look for the company’s ad in our December issue to see how to get free shipping on any order greater than $400 through the rest of the year. All products are shipped from the company’s U.S. warehouse.

See you next Wednesday,
Marc

J.M. Products Inc., one of the largest U.S. manufacturers of multicultural haircare products, was sold at a federal bankruptcy court auction last Thursday to C2 Global Technologies Inc. of Canada for $6.8 million.

That’s what ArkansasBusiness.com, whose staff has been doing yeoman’s work on what’s becoming of J.M. Products, reported on Monday.

My guess is that you haven’t been closely following the J.M. Products story, as I and a number of beauty-industry merger-and-acquisition watchers have. The family-owned, often-honored business filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last April. In October 2007, the company suffered a devastating fire at its Little Rock, Arkansas, plant.

J.M. Products is the manufacturer of the ISOPLUS, UpTURN, Oil of K and Black Magic brands. It is the largest black-owned company in Arkansas, with more than 100 employees, as well as the largest minority-owned aerosol-manufacturing company in the United States.

The company was co-founded in the mid-1970s by the late Ernest P. Joshua Sr. and his wife and J.M. Products chief executive officer Thelma L. Joshua. In 2007, both were inducted into the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame.

The company is also a member of the American Health and Beauty Aids Institute.

So far there’s been no public statement from C2 Global Technologies in Toronto, Ontario, on what it will now do. How this develops will be very interesting to watch. Stayed tuned for more …

See you next Wednesday,
Marc